Paws beyond the Potteries - the Manifold Valley

Ay up, everyone!  It's Hanley Bear here again, with another post about walks around Stoke-on-Trent, though this one is quite a long way out in the Staffordshire Moorlands.

We started at Ilam Park, which is a National Trust estate and is definitely in Staffordshire, despite their handbook and website saying Derbyshire!  This is because the postal address ends with "Ashbourne, Derbyshire" - but Ilam Park, and the west bank of Dovedale, are part of my county!  

I found out that they had been wrongly put in Derbyshire when I saw Ilam Park had won the 2022 National Trust Scone award, but the address had the worng county on it.  I get very cross about Derbyshire claiming parts of the Peak District that are Staffordshire - they put The Roaches on one of their tourist brochures once!

Anyway, one summer's day Polar and Grizzly took us to Ilam Park for a long walk through the country park and along the valley of the River Manifold, although some of it is a dry valley because the river sometimes disappears down into the limestone.  There were plenty of good climbing trees for small bears, so we spent lots of time out of our Bear Bag exploring. 

Once we were out of the woods, there were dry stone walls, so Endon could practice his mountaineering, and teach Sonning and me some rock-climbing skills too.

Polar showed us how to read an Ordnance Survey map.  We were looking for a path back to the Country Park that wouldn't be too steep or rocky for Grizzly and Polar explained that you could judge how steep a route would be from how close together the orange contour lines were.

Soon we were back beside the river, in one of its watery sections.  It was very clear and we could see weed and fish in it.  Polar had hoped we might see little birds called dippers, as some live in Dovedale, but there was no sign of them that day - probably because she had brought her big camera with the zoom lens, which seems to stop us seeing interesting birds and animals.

We did some more walking around the park, then had tea and cake before Polar and Grizzly had a look in the little bookshop, then drove us home.  There are some great walks around Ilam Park and we hope to go again when it is not too wet, so we can see Dovedale and go across the famous stepping stones - and only then will we be in Derbyshire!

Paws around the Potteries - Church Lawton Canals Walk

Ay up, everyone!  It's Hanley Bear here, with a post about another walk near our home near Stoke-on-Trent.

We often have a walk along the Trent and Mersey Canal or Macclesfield Canal, but on this walk we found a path that linked the two together, so we could do a circular walk back to the car - and the pub!

We started near the Red Bull Wharf on the Trent and Mersey Canal, which is between Lock 43 and 44, and near the Red Bull pub.  It used to be a Canal and River Trust office but that seems to have closed now, so we hope someone takes the building over soon and makes use of it, as it's a great site.

 

Our human guardians carried us along the towpath beside the locks and down towards one of our favourite moorings on Uppie, near the Church Locks.  Then we left the canal and followed a footpath across some fields to a little church.

 

We found that the church was open and we could go in to look around.  It was very quiet and peaceful, so we were good bears and didn't run about or make noise while Grizzly sat down and had a little rest.  There were home-made cards for sale, with a little honesty box, so Polar bought a few and Grizzly put some money in for a little chisel that was for sale with several other old tools.

 

The path from the church led us through some nice woods called Church Lawton Woods, surrounding a big country house hidden away from the main road, and a lake.  Polar said that we ought to visit again in the spring, as there are lots of bluebells in the woods here.  She thinks it would be nice to organise a walk for the Inland Waterways group.

There were some great climbing trees in the woods and also some with little bear caves in their trunks, so we all climbed out of the Bear Bag to play, but we didn't find any other small bears living there.

The path through the woods eventually took us to some houses and the A34 road, which we crossed to join another path leading to the Macclefield Canal.  It was strange, doing a walk along a section of canal that we have often been up and down on Uppie.

There are really good views across the fields to Mow Cop Castle from this part of the path.  Polar hoped one of the kingfishers might be about, but we didn't see any this time.

A little further along, we crossed the aqueduct over the A50 road through Kidsgrove, then came to the aqueduct over the Trent and Mersey Canal and the tight corner where Mr Tony has his boat repair yard.  There are steps beside the aqueduct that take you down to the lower canal, so our human guardians climbed down these and back along the T&M towpath to the pub.

It had been a nice walk in the autumn sunshine but walking, running and climbing trees are thirsty work for a small bear.  Luckily, Grizzly decided he would like a drink too, so I got to sip some of the bubbles off of his beer!

I have got some more adventures to share with you, so look out for another Paws Around the Potteries post fairly soon.

 

Bears Go West

We bears had plenty of adventures during the late summer and early autumn of this year; in fact, we were having so many that I didn't have time to write about them all in my blog!

Now, it is time to catch up on some that I missed...

 

In late September, five of us went on an adventure to Somerset and Cornwall with Polar and Grizzly.  Huddlesford Bear wasn't with us, as he was having a special adventure of his own, which he will tell you about one day.

On the first day, Polar and Grizzly drove us down a big motorway (the M5) to Somerset, where we stopped for one night with our friends Uncle Derek and Aunty Ann.  We were coming back to their house for a longer visit later, but they had kindly said we could stay so our humans didn't have to drive all the way to Cornwall in one day.  They are always kind to us bears and let us have biscuits and homemade cake!

The following day, we set off for Cornwall.  On the way, we went to see one of Grizzly's nephews, who trains lifeguards for the RNLI.  He has a little son whose best pal is Lifeguard Ted.  While the humans were all talking and eating lunch, Lifeguard Ted had a long chat to Dudley and Waverley about staying safe if they went to the beach.  This was important, because we were going to stay at Grizzly's sister's house, which is very near the beach - in fact, we could see the sea from our bedroom window!

 

We had some nice adventures with Mrs Hazel and her family, including our friend Izzy, who is Grizzly's great-niece.  Polar had hoped to do some bodyboarding but the sea was totally calm during our visit, so she and Mrs Hazel just went swimming instead.

One day, Hanley and Waverley had a trip to Lizard Point, the most southerly part of England.  Hanley was sad that the visitor centre was closed but they still had quite an adventure walking part of the coast path with Polar and Grizzly, and saw seals and some big fish jumping out at sea, which we heard on the news that night were blue-fin tuna.  They wanted to wind the handle to sound the fog-horn, but Polar said "no" because there definitely wasn't any fog!

After a few nice days in Cornwall, it was time to go back to Aunty Ann and Uncle Derek.  We were hungry small bears by the time we arrived, and soon ate all the cakes, but there was a very special surprise for our breakfast the following morning - fresh honey from their son's beehives!

And we all had the chance to enjoy some splendid Small Bear Adventures.  During our last visit, Hanley and Huddlesford had travelled on the West Somerset Railway, but this time we all did!

 

Dudley and Waverley were absolutely thrilled, and were delighted to find that the old carriages had tables with built-in seats for smaller bears.  We watched the countryside whiz by as we made our way all the way to Minehead on the coast.

We thought we were very lucky bears to be in the train being hauled by a steam engine, as the other one in service that day was a diesel-hauled service.  We waved to the driver and all the passengers when we passed it halfway along our journey.

We had time to do a little bit of exploring at Minehead, although we had to be very careful as it was a busy station with lots of humans getting on and off of the train.  Dudley found other small bears for adoption in the shop and wanted to bring one home as a new friend, but they said they didn't want to come and live with us such a long way from the seaside.

We had a walk along the promenade in the sunshine, but the tide was a long way out, so our humans couldn't do any paddling, and Uncle Derek said we needed to get back for our train, so we could have lunch in Watchett and visit the little maritime museum beside the station.

Waverley and Dudley found some lovely little cars in the pub window that they could pretend to drive while the humans were having their lunch.  Dudley thought the Mini was best, but Waverley liked the racing car.

  

We all loved the little maritime museum too, especially Waverley, who found a very nice model of "Me Boat" - the paddle-steamer Waverley.

Hanley Bear decided that he would like to be a pirate, however!

"But I would be a good pirate and give all my treasure to human cubs," he said.  "Arrrrrrrgh!"

We had all been so busy running about exploring the museum and having fun that we had naps on the train back to Uncle Derek's car.  We think the seats in old carriages are much more comfortable than the ones in modern trains, which is good if you are a tired little bear.

 

 Another day, the humans went to see a section of the Grand Western Canal, and took me with them so I could write an article about it for Mr Roger, the editor of our Inland Waterways magazine.  The section we saw ends with a lock that has been filled in and can't be navigated by narrowboats but canoists and paddleboarders can use it.

 

 There are also some lime kilns, which reminded me very much of our Staffordshire canals.  Further to the south-west there is a section where there is a horse boat, so perhaps we will go there when we visit again.

 

Endon and the cubs had an adventure too, when they joined the humans on a walk along a lost railway, which used to link the little town of Wiveliscombe, where we got our special Bear Inn travelling bag, to the main line at Taunton.  There are no tracks left, although lots of the old concrete posts and wire fencing for the railway is still visible beside the footpath, which runs quite close to Aunty Ann and Uncle Derek's house.  We think it's a great shame they don't still have trains.

We were all sad little bears when it was time to go home again, but Aunty Ann gave us lots of hugs and said we could come to stay whenever we wanted, so perhaps we will get back to Somerset in the spring or summer, and have more adventures with our dear friends.